Allocation of cases plea- SC to decide on sensitive cases

New Delhi, April 13: The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to examine a plea on whether the allocation of "sensitive and important cases" should be done by the Chief Justice of India (CJI) alone or by the collegium of five senior-most judges.

Asking Attorney General K.K. Venugopal to assist the court in hearing of the matter, a bench of Justice A.K. Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan asked: "CJI is the master of roster, should we interpret it to mean collegium... would it be feasible?"

Observing that nearly one lakh cases come to the top court every year, Justice Sikri wondered if the collegium will sit for each and every case.

"Prima facie, it's not a workable solution because that would mean the five judges would be required to sit every day or twice a week to allocate cases," said the bench, adding that there should be a "self-governing mechanism".